I'm a relatively new knitter and am working on my fist sock. I could really use some help/ideas as to what I'm doing wrong. I found a super, simple pattern using "Judy's magic cast on" and one, long, circular needle (magic loop). It's a simple, single color, stockinette stitch. The increases and the body went great. THEN, I came to the heel. I have a total of 36 stitches; 18 stitches on each side. The pattern says to "choose a side--it doesn't matter which side--and slide 1/3 of the middle stitches (12 stitches) to a double-pointed needle. This will be the heel flap." As I said, I have 18 stitches on each side and I wasn't sure what to do with the first two stitches BEFORE those 12 middle stitches and the last two stitches AFTER those 12 middle stitches....so I slid them around to the other side. I knit the heel flap, picked up the sides, turned the heel, made the decreases and went on back to knitting rounds. But, I noticed that there were two, small, round holes in the same place on either side of the heel...where those two stitches before and after the middle 12 stitches were. My tension/guage seems consistant and they fit really well. I've ripped it out and tried re-doing it several times and knitting the first couple of those 12 middle stitches really snug but I always end up with those holes! Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? Thanks for any advice you can offer!

__________________"The earth wasn't given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children."
Erin from Maryland

with socks and gloves you often get those holes for the joining parts. That is common since you have stretched the part when moving your pieces around.
So, one of the options is to sew up the holes afterwards.
Or, often the trick is to pick up 1 or 2 stitches in the gap. Then in the next 2 maybe 4 rounds you get rid of those extra stitches by k2tog, ssk and such decreases.

Thank you SO much! That makes perfect sense. I just never thought to pick up more stitches and then decrease them...duh! 'Guess one of the tricks newbies need to learn is that you're allowed to "adjust"; you don't have to follow the directions and ONLY the directions. Thanks, again!

__________________"The earth wasn't given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children."
Erin from Maryland